On a sidenote, the notion that ESPN wanted the Big East to fade is rubbish. ESPN had a huge deal on the table that the Big East rejected. Had it taken the deal, Syracuse and Pitt might never have left for the ACC.

The Big East has never divulged how its money is split. It has been speculated 60 percent is divided among all the members and 40 percent among the football schools. Right now, that would give the basketball schools $4.6 million and football schools about $10.3 million. By contrast, the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 schools get about $21 million a year.

The Big East also rejected the ESPN extension because the basketball and football schools could no longer agree on how to divvy up the pot. With or without a new TV deal, the league was already splintering, as the football schools wanted more of what they were bringing in. As ESPN's Andrea Adelson wrote earlier this year:

One of the biggest stumbling points has been how the television money would be divided among the basketball and football schools. Last year, at the spring meetings in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., one proposal suggested a 75/25 split—75 percent of the money going to football schools, and 25 percent going to basketball schools. One athletic director at a basketball school raised his hand and wondered why the numbers were not flipped, since hoops is the reason the Big East exists in the first place.

"We always keep our television partners close to us. You don't get extra money for basketball. It's 85 percent football money. TV—ESPN—is the one who told us what to do."

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It made perfect business sense: The ACC already had a billion-dollar deal with ESPN, and ESPN knew the Big East was divided. By further weakening the Big East, ESPN made the Big East less attractive to its competitors before they could so much as schedule a meeting. DeFilippo, who recently retired, eventually took back his comment a couple of days later, but by then it was too late. His candor had already told us everything we needed to know. Andy Katz just doesn't want to believe it. Wonder why.